When do you start weaning your lo?

[FierceAngel]

17 weeks as she started to loose weight... just on baby rice, ceral, fruit/veg purees.. but i never replaced her milk... she was having a min of 24 ozs a day but usually 35-40ozs!

she has just turned 6 months and now has most things 2-3 meals a day.. and only 2 bottles a day.. so i have switched to follow on and i make sure she has plenty of milk/dairy in her food...



i like the idea of baby led weaning but most of it goes on the floor lol

all her food is just mashed not purred..

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

After doing a lot of reading, we're waiting til 6m then doing BLW. Ruby has met all the developmental milestones that coincide with being ready for weaning, and she's on the 98th percentile for weight, but she's totally happy on milk. Hungry babies need more milk not food IMO, milk is more nutritious than a bit of mashed up carrot anyway. Plus if babies are given solids too early, they just pass through their systems without any of the nutrients being absorbed anyway.

 

[MrsTatty]

I'm planning on starting to wean Patrick at 6 months. He's a hungry baby but quite satisfied with boob juice for now. Am currently reading up on BLW as I think that he will take to that better than puree.

 

[Faerie]

Sofia is 5 months and starting to show an interest in food but I'm going to hold out a few weeks more, she is putting on weight at a steady pace.

The main reason as far as I'm aware to not wean before 6 months is because babies digestive systems are not ready for it, the longer you wait the better chance they have of dealing with all types of foods. Seeing as Sofia had bowel surgery when she was born and was born 3 weeks early theres even more reason for me to hold out.

 

[mummymoo82]

I am going to wait until the recommended 6 months, although that all depends the the milk continues to keep her full, Madison is a big baby.
It's very misleading with alot of the jars of baby foods out there say 4+months

 

[kirsten1985]

Yeah they are meant to be changing the labelling, guess they make more money if it says 4m+?

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

The recommended age for weaning used to be 3m, and when it was put up to 4m, a law was immediately passed banning companies from labelling their products as suitable from 3 months. However, when the age went up to 6m, no new law was passed against labelling food as suitable from 4m.

I think it will happen eventually though.

 

[Abz1982]

Does anyone know where there is any info on what used to happen years and years ago with weaning - I mean like about 100 or so? I guess I am just curious as to what they used to do way back then.

I was weaned at 4 months and there is no food - other then eggs - I am allergic to. I also have very good health - other than a fat ass cos I am lazy - its not to do with being weaned early as when I do exercise I can be thin and stay that way.

 

[kirsten1985]

I read a thing a while ago that sid in Victorian times they used to wean at about 9 months, but this was for BFing, they said that 'artificially fed' (FF) babies were weaned earlier, but I don't know how much earlier. I will try and find where I read it.

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

yeah, it used to be much later, and babies were given foods to gnaw on like meat bones rather than purees! it was only when the commercial jarred baby food became available that people realised that you could feed 'solids' to much younger babies.

i was weaned at 4m too and am very healthy, but I probably didn't 'need' solids then. I am not overweight, but am poor at stopping eating when I am full. The book I have on Baby Lead Weaning seems to suggest that spoon feeding early MAY cause this, but it's all anecdotal evidence so who knows. Everyone is different.

 

[kirsten1985]

I was weaned at 6 months, on purees. To be fair, I am also rubbish at stopping when I am full, but I am not overweight. I think it probably contributes more to allergies etc, I am milk and egg intolerant, but these are mild, not full blown allergies, which I believe they could have been if I was fed these things earlier. (I was BF and only found to have a milk allergy at 6 months).

My main reason for doing BLW is to promote independance and confidence with food, to avoid mealtime battles and encourage healthy eating. I am starting at 6 months because we are doing this.

 

[kirsten1985]

Does anyone know where there is any info on what used to happen years and years ago with weaning - I mean like about 100 or so? I guess I am just curious as to what they used to do way back then.

I was weaned at 4 months and there is no food - other then eggs - I am allergic to. I also have very good health - other than a fat ass cos I am lazy - its not to do with being weaned early as when I do exercise I can be thin and stay that way.

The practice of giving thickened food to infants at too tender an age is a source of endless trouble, as before observed. In one of Dr. Edward Smith's admirable articles on dietary he remarks that the feeding of young infants on bread, flour, biscuits, and other substances than milk, is a "constant source of derangement of the liver, and a frequent cause of fits." However considerable the quantity of such food passed into the stomach of a young infant may be, the body is not thereby nourished, but irritated. A babe, like an adult, is only nourished by what it has power to digest.
As a general rule a babe ought to be entirely nourished on milk until the first tooth appears. Even after that period milk should for a considerable time form the staple article of food. Larger quantities should then be given, and greater intervals between the meals observed. It is estimated that a babe three months of age will consume at least three pints of milk in twenty-four hours.
"Up to six or seven months of age," Dr. Letheby says, "infants have not the power of digesting farinaceous or fibrinous substances." After that age many descriptions of farinaceous food may be used, and are to be strongly recommended.

This is from this website: https://www.victoriaspast.com/Breastfeeding/breastfeed.htm

 

[Kitten]

I was getting geared up to start at 17 weeks because my mum started me on purees etc at that age, however, I've decided to wait until he needs it. I'd like to hold out til 6months but I'm going to let him/GP/HV tell me when he's ready.

 

[NoSpringChick]

Does anyone know when it went to 6 months?
Cos I got a few books out the library today and all of them start at 4 months old.
There is 3 stages to weaning - 4 mnths - 5 mnths and 6 mnths -- if you wait till 6 months you have to do the stages faster.

I know my yellow book says that a breastfed baby only needs milk till they are 6 months old, but it doesnt say for a ff one.

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

Does anyone know when it went to 6 months?

2003.

It's the same for FF babies.

 

[CountingDown]

Does anyone know when it went to 6 months?

2003.

It's the same for FF babies.

Didn't realise it was 6 years ago, for some reason I thought it was more recent than that.

I am following BLW but started offering vegetable sticks at 5 1/2 months xx